Alex M reviewed Writing solid code by Steve Maguire
Review of 'Writing solid code' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Tl;dr: this is a great book.
I discovered this book accidentally at about the same time I was reading "The Practice of Programming" by Kernighan and Pike. And while they're both about professional programming in C (whatever Kernighan and Pike say in their introduction, TPoP is mostly about C, with cameos from C++, Java, Perl and AWK) they are very different books. But I digress.
"Writing Solid Code" is about how to write production quality, reliable and maintainable (C) code. Don't be fooled by the emphasis on C. Most of the advice applies to programming in general. And even the sections that are C specific are worth reading, even if only for the appreciation you'll get for modern languages where you don't have to deal with C's quirks and dark corners.
The book is approachable. Maguire shares his (hard earned) experience without being patronising. It feels like an experienced engineer …
Tl;dr: this is a great book.
I discovered this book accidentally at about the same time I was reading "The Practice of Programming" by Kernighan and Pike. And while they're both about professional programming in C (whatever Kernighan and Pike say in their introduction, TPoP is mostly about C, with cameos from C++, Java, Perl and AWK) they are very different books. But I digress.
"Writing Solid Code" is about how to write production quality, reliable and maintainable (C) code. Don't be fooled by the emphasis on C. Most of the advice applies to programming in general. And even the sections that are C specific are worth reading, even if only for the appreciation you'll get for modern languages where you don't have to deal with C's quirks and dark corners.
The book is approachable. Maguire shares his (hard earned) experience without being patronising. It feels like an experienced engineer advising a fellow engineers on the tools he's using. At times it's almost like you're chatting with one of your more seasoned workmates.
This is definitely worth reading, no matter what language you use. I'll mentally tag this as an "underapeciated book worth re-reading every couple of years".
